The Engagement Deal

‘It’s ironic, isn’t it?’ Tara laughed.

‘You never told me that!’ Niall exclaimed in a shocked voice. There was a dark band of colour across the slanting sweep of his high cheekbones.

Guilty conscience? Holly wondered uncharitably. Well, she couldn’t see a single reason why she should give Niall the benefit of the doubt.

‘Well, I wouldn’t, would I, silly.’

The loud sound of a chair being pushed over made them and every other diner in the restaurant turn around.

‘Oh, help, please, someone!’ An attractive woman was down on her knees beside the figure of a prone middle-aged man. ‘I don’t think he’s breathing!’ she wailed.

Holly wasn’t very far behind Niall as he moved towards the traumatised woman. He was feeling the man’s neck for a pulse when she dropped down on her knees.

‘Nothing,’ he said shaking his head. He started to loosen the tie around the portly man’s neck and the anxious companion began to wail in earnest, throwing herself bodily on top of the man.

‘Let me…’ Holly began.

‘Will you look after the woman?’ Niall curtly cut her off. ‘Has someone called an ambulance?’

‘I have, sir,’ the maître d’ confirmed, materialising at their side. He took the distraught woman by the arm and pulled her to one side. He looked on doubtfully as Niall struck the man sharply on the chest and tilted his head back in readiness to begin mouth-to-mouth. ‘Don’t you think, sir, we should wait until a doctor arrives?’

CHAPTER THREE

‘I AM a doctor,’ Holly said, sparing him a brief glance before she began chest compressions. ‘One, two…’ She began to count out loud.

Briefly her eyes met Niall’s. ‘Game, set and match, you witch,’ he conceded.

‘Save your breath,’ Holly advised. ‘He needs it.’

The man had, much to her relief, started breathing before the paramedics had arrived. Holly was glad to see a familiar face. She gave a brief concise history to the big hunky paramedic, who listened and nodded as he gave the patient a quick assessment.

‘Just can’t keep away from me, can you, Doc Parish?’ He winked broadly at her. ‘Nice one,’ he added approvingly, nodding toward the figure on the stretcher. ‘We’ll take over now.’

‘Thank you, Paul.’

‘No, thank you, my sweet.’ He smiled warmly over his shoulder as they whisked the man off to the waiting ambulance. ‘We miss you already, Holly!’

Niall had watched this interchange through narrowed eyes and wondered if he looked as much of a fool as he felt—probably not. He felt extremely foolish!

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ he demanded.

Holly inclined her head up towards the tall, grim-faced figure beside her. ‘Why didn’t you ask?’

Several people called out congratulatory comments as she made her way back to the table, where a shaken-looking Tara was drinking a large brandy. Tara got to her feet and enfolded Holly in a warm fragrant embrace.

‘You were so marvellous! Wasn’t she, Niall? I don’t know how you stayed so calm. I’m shaking like a leaf.’ She released Holly and held out a hand to demonstrate. ‘Well, now I know what you do.’

Holly, whose nails were kept conveniently short, envied the beautifully polished perfect set of nails the other woman had.

‘I shake, too—inside, at least.’

‘It must be marvellous knowing you can help people.’

‘It’s lucky she doesn’t live in a litigious country where she has to think twice about helping someone,’ Niall contributed wryly.

Thinking of Tara’s breathless sentiments, Holly nodded a little selfconsciously. With her friends and colleagues, she might have responded with a facetious remark which would have had them all laughing. Perhaps one day she’d develop the veneer of cynicism that many of her colleagues had, but deep down she agreed with Tara: she was lucky to be doing something she enjoyed so much.

‘It’s also extremely tiring,’ she responded lightly. ‘The hours are not exactly conducive to a social life either.’

‘I can imagine,’ Tara, who knew all about long gruelling hours, agreed.

Holly’s eyes twinkled as she gave a naughty smile. ‘But there are fringe benefits. Did you notice him…?’ she asked, her tongue firmly inserted in her cheek.

‘He was hard to miss,’ Tara responded immediately. ‘There’s something about a man in uniform…’ she mused with a twinkle.

‘Isn’t there just,’ Holly agreed with lascivious fervour.

‘Shall I leave?’ Despite his languid tone, Holly had the impression Niall wasn’t over the moon about their conversation.

‘Don’t tell me a bit of girlie talk is making you of all people feel insecure, Niall?’ Tara teased.

‘I wouldn’t like to be responsible for cramping your style, ladies.’

‘You won’t,’ Holly promised with a sweetly malicious smile.

‘Seriously, Holly, I know it’s hard to juggle a career and a marriage, but with a supportive partner anything’s possible.’ Tara, sitting beside her ex-partner, seemed genuinely unaware of any irony in her statement.

‘There aren’t many partners that supportive,’ Holly responded cynically. She’d seen marriages stretched to the limit break under the strain.

‘Well, you don’t have to look, do you? Because you’ve found one.’ She looked across the table at Niall and smiled warmly. ‘You know I’m so glad he’s marrying you and not Rowena. I’m sure she’s a very nice person,’ she added anxiously as Holly shot her a quizzical look. ‘But you two look sort of right together. And just look how well you worked together just now.’

There hadn’t been time to wonder during the panic, but now a disturbed and squirming Holly could recall how, bizzarely, Niall had seemed to know what she wanted him to do before she asked him when they had worked in unison to save the man’s life. If he anticipated a woman’s—or, more specifically, her—needs that well in other, more pleasurable, situations, it would be quite something, she reflected.

For several dreamy seconds, she let her mind dwell speculatively on the steamy sensual images that floated into her head.

‘Sure, we’re soul mates from way back.’

The blistering sarcasm in his voice made Tara look at him with shocked disapproval and woke Holly from the erotic permutations she’d been spinning around the general bedroom theme. Her eyes opened wide with dismay as a horrified fractured sigh emerged from her dry lips.

‘You’re tired,’ Niall observed, noticing her sigh, but fortunately not knowing the cause.

He sounded concerned, if a little cross, as though she’d got tired just to irritate him, but the tender lover was all part of the act, she reminded herself, burying her nose in a balloon of brandy that Tara had pushed into her hands to avoid looking directly at him.

All this talk of supportive, understanding partners was making her feel all soft and sentimental, not to mention just a mite wistful. Then she’d made the criminally stupid mistake of imagining what sort of lover Niall would make.

Pretending that she didn’t find him wildly attractive wasn’t going to get her anywhere, she told herself with stern pragmatism. What she had to do was keep her imagination on a strict rein. She was grown up; she didn’t have to go broadcasting the fact she was privately lusting after his body. And it is just his body, it’s that superficial, she told herself firmly. I don’t even like the man, for goodness’ sake!

She knew there were a lot of women in Niall Wesley’s life and, even if he had displayed any interest in her, Holly had no wish to join the ranks of his mistresses. There seemed to be two very important women his life—Niall’s beautiful ex-wife and her own sister. A wise woman knew when not to compete. No, her relationship with Niall was going to stay safely in the realms of make-believe!